A couple of meatboxes

Photos older than five years old (preferably much older)
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iainpeden
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Location: Great Oakley, Corby, Northants

A couple of meatboxes

Post by iainpeden »

A friend of mine asked me to research these pictures for a mate of his. The mate's dad is in the cockpit in the first picture.
EE549 was an F.4 used to set an air speed record - I think it was based at Tangmere and a note on the back confirms this. Apparently these a/c went straight from Gloster to Tangmere. As a modeller, I have only ever seen a profile of this a/c - which shows it as a medium blue with white codes. Well- those codes aren't white. There's also a colour photo of the a/c on Horseguards Parade, with a Lysander, Spitfire and Mossie behind; it is in grey/green camo and I haven't yet managed to find a date for that photo. She is currently at the Tangmere museum.

ImageUntitled-15-meteor ee549 by Iain Peden, on Flickr

EE470 - I think it belongs to 263 squadron and may have been taken at RAF Acklington. Interestingly it is recorded as being an a/c kept behind by Glosters and linked to an order by the Argentinian Air Force for 100 Meteors.

ImageUntitled-19-g meteor ee470 by Iain Peden, on Flickr

If any body can shed any more light on either airframe I'd be grateful.
(Mark Twain: There are lies, there are damn lies and then there are statistics)

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hunterxf382
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Re: A couple of meatboxes

Post by hunterxf382 »

EE549 has actually appeared on Horseguards Parade several times, but the original colour photo you referred to was taken in 1968 Iain. And judging by another shot from the same year - that can be further pinned down to 29/08/1968:
https://abpic.co.uk/pictures/view/1237243

And for RAF100 in 2018, it went back again :)

Pete Buckingham
Volunteer in Aviation
Former RAF Engineer
http://hunterxf382.weebly.com/

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iainpeden
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Joined: Sun 31 Aug 2008, 7:01 pm
Location: Great Oakley, Corby, Northants

Re: A couple of meatboxes

Post by iainpeden »

Many thanks Pete - apparently the a/c was displayed in Paris in November '46. I'm working on a timeline to work out when the photo in the record breaking scheme was taken. I'm told the chap in it finished his basic training at Greenham Common in April '46 and left the RAF in '48.
(Mark Twain: There are lies, there are damn lies and then there are statistics)

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